Television communications over the years has become an everyday part of existence in the United States and abroad. These communications include a wide range of words and phrases. Some of the viewers of these communications would prefer that some specific words or phrases not be utilized. Viewers of these programs would like to view these programs but without having to be exposed to undesirable words or phrases. In order to meet this need, the viewing audience needs a means for automatically identifying specific words and/or related phrases and muting such words or phrases without affecting the video portion of the television or video signal.
TV program control includes different forms. One form discloses methods of identifying and subsequent blocking out of video signals. U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,518 by Hunter et al. discloses a method and apparatus for the recognition of electronic television broadcast programming and for a choice among available programs. It allows the user to lock out or block out all programs that have not been determined to be suitable to be viewed by all family members. These types of parental control devices work off principles of the time and codes. The devices block a television signal, both video and audio portions, during specific time frames and which have specific rating pursuant to an established rating code. This type of device does not allow the viewer to view the program.
Another program control relates to the splitting of the audio and video portions of the television broadcast signal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,273 for Okamura discloses a circuit which causes the closed captioned data contained within the video portion of the television signal to be displayed when the muting function of the audio portion of the signal has been activated (see also U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,716 for Foyler, et al.). This device focuses on displaying the closed captioned data when the audio portion of a signal is muted. This device is an aid when the viewer manually activates the muting function of a television set. It does not act as a monitor of the content of the video or audio portion of the television signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,075,550 to La Pierre filed subsequent to a parent of this application discloses a system which includes means for editing television audio in a manner different from that of the present disclosure.
The ability to choose what is appropriate for the family is becoming more and more important. Common previous systems involve either a method of blocking out an entire program and thus missing important unobjectionable information or manually muting a selected audio portion and possibly displaying the closed captioned text, such closed captioned data would still include, and thus display, specific undesired information on the screen. There is a need to mute certain words or phrases while at the same time not affecting the video portion of the signal displaying only a modified closed caption signal, all under specific control of a parental supervisor.